The O.C.’s Ryan Had A Major Career Change – & It Involves Cryptocurrency

If you were a teenager, or even a pre-teen, in 2004, the chances are your Sundays revolved around watching The O.C. on T4. Everyone headed to Newport to find out what Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) and Ryan Atwood (Ben McKenzie) were getting up to. Like many pop culture hits from the early noughties, the teen drama enjoyed a comeback last year when actresses Rachel Bilson, who portrayed Summer Roberts, and Melinda Clarke, famous for playing Julie Cooper, started a nostalgic Welcome to The O.C., Bitches podcast.

Now, Ben McKenzie is back in the spotlight, but not as our favourite bad boy-turned-good from Chino. In a move that will no doubt surprise even the most die-hard of The O.C. fans, McKenzie is releasing a book about cryptocurrency and fraud. The actor, who studied economics and foreign affairs at the University of Virginia, has teamed up with The New Republic journalist Jacob Silverman for Easy Money.

Announcing the news on Twitter, McKenzie wrote: “Easy Money is about two things — money and lying — and while I know a little about the former from my econ degree, it’s the latter that fascinates me. Maybe that’s why I do it for a living.”

Meanwhile, Silverman told Variety: “Since Ryan Atwood from The O.C. unexpectedly slid into my DMs last August, to ask if I wanted to have beers and talk crypto, I’ve had the thrill of discovering that a great actor is also a lively thinker, who cares deeply about economic and social issues.”

This isn’t the first time McKenzie and Silverman have written about crypto together. The duo has previously penned articles for Slate magazine, and McKenzie has also spoken about crypto and celebrity culture on Slate’s podcast.

Following his success on The O.C., McKenzie has enjoyed key roles in hit TV dramas. In NBC’s Southland, he starred as police officer Ben Sherman. Staying true to the crime theme, he played detective Jim Gordon in E4’s Gotham, the prequel series to the Batman franchise. The actor married his Gotham co-star, actress Morena Baccarin, in 2017 on Baccarin’s birthday.